Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 5:37
There are 22 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 67, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
On Idolatry. (HTML)
Connection Between Covetousness and Idolatry. Certain Trades, However Gainful, to Be Avoided. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 233 (In-Text, Margin)
If we think over the rest of faults, tracing them from their generations, let us begin with covetousness, “a root of all evils,” wherewith, indeed, some having been ensnared, “have suffered shipwreck about faith.” Albeit covetousness is by the same apostle called idolatry. In the next place proceeding to mendacity, the minister of covetousness (of false swearing I am silent, since even swearing is not lawful[Matthew 5:34-37])—is trade adapted for a servant of God? But, covetousness apart, what is the motive for acquiring? When the motive for acquiring ceases, there will be no necessity for trading. Grant now that there be some righteousness in business, secure from the duty of watchfulness against ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 256, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Prescription Against Heretics. (HTML)
The Apostles Did in All Cases Teach the Whole Truth to the Whole Church. No Reservation, Nor Partial Communication to Favourite Friends. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2138 (In-Text, Margin)
... publicly, (and) another secretly, and announced one hope of the resurrection before all men, (and) another before the few; although they themselves, in their epistles, besought men that they would all speak one and the same thing, and that there should be no divisions and dissensions in the church, seeing that they, whether Paul or others, preached the same things. Moreover, they remembered (the words): “Let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil;”[Matthew 5:37] so that they were not to handle the gospel in a diversity of treatment.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 541, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Flesh of Christ. (HTML)
Simeon's “Sign that Should Be Contradicted,” Applied to the Heretical Gainsaying of the True Birth of Christ. One of the Heretics' Paradoxes Turned in Support of Catholic Truth. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7256 (In-Text, Margin)
... virgin,” as regards her bearing a child. There is not, however, that parity of reasoning which the heretics affect: in other words it does not follow that for the reason “she did not bear,” she who was “not a virgin” was “yet a virgin,” even because she became a mother without any fruit of her own womb. But with us there is no equivocation, nothing twisted into a double sense. Light is light; and darkness, darkness; yea is yea; and nay, nay; “whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”[Matthew 5:37] She who bare (really) bare; and although she was a virgin when she conceived, she was a wife when she brought forth her son. Now, as a wife, she was under the very law of “opening the womb,” wherein it was quite immaterial whether the birth ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 604, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Praxeas. (HTML)
The Catholic Rule of Faith Expounded in Some of Its Points. Especially in the Unconfused Distinction of the Several Persons of the Blessed Trinity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7867 (In-Text, Margin)
... does not the very fact that they have the distinct names of Father and Son amount to a declaration that they are distinct in personality? For, of course, all things will be what their names represent them to be; and what they are and ever will be, that will they be called; and the distinction indicated by the names does not at all admit of any confusion, because there is none in the things which they designate. “Yes is yes, and no is no; for what is more than these, cometh of evil.”[Matthew 5:37]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 344, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To Cornelius, Concerning Fortunatus and Felicissimus, or Against the Heretics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2576 (In-Text, Margin)
... in Africa seems to a few desperate and abandoned men to be too little, who have already judged concerning them, and have lately condemned, by the gravity of their judgment, their conscience bound in many bonds of sins. Already their case has been examined, already sentence concerning them has been pronounced; nor is it fitting for the dignity of priests to be blamed for the levity of a changeable and inconstant mind, when the Lord teaches and says, “Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay.”[Matthew 5:37]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 537, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... ye have heard that it was said to them of old, Thou shalt not swear falsely, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.) I say unto you, Swear not at all: (neither by heaven, because it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, because it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King; neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.) But let your discourse be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: (for whatever is fuller than these is of evil.”)[Matthew 5:34-37] Of this same thing in Exodus: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 248, footnote 13 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)
Homily III. (HTML)
Teaching of Christ. (HTML)
“But to those who think, as the Scriptures teach, that God swears, He said, ‘Let your yea be yea, and nay, nay; for what is more than these is of the evil one.’[Matthew 5:37] And to those who say that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are dead, He said, ‘God is not of the dead, but of the living.’ And to those who suppose that God tempts, as the Scriptures say, He said, ‘The tempter is the wicked one,’ who also tempted Himself. To those who suppose that God does not foreknow, He said, ‘For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all these things before ye ask Him.’ And to those who believe, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 331, footnote 7 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)
Homily XIX. (HTML)
The Existence of the Devil Affirmed. (HTML)
... with Him, and tempted Him for forty days. And I know that He has said somewhere else, ‘If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself: how then is his kingdom to stand?’ And He pointed out that He saw the evil one like lightning falling down from heaven. And elsewhere He said, ‘He who sowed the bad seed is the devil.’ And again, ‘Give no pretext to the evil one.’ Moreover, in giving advice, He said, ‘Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay; for what is more than these is of the evil one.’[Matthew 5:37] Also, in the prayer which He delivered to us, we have it said, ‘Deliver us from the evil one.’ And in another place, He promised that He would say to those who are impious, ‘Go ye into outer darkness, which the Father prepared for the devil and his ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 57, footnote 32 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Diatessaron of Tatian. (HTML)
The Diatessaron. (HTML)
Section IX. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 691 (In-Text, Margin)
[1] Ye have heard also that it was said unto the ancients, Lie not, but perform unto [2] God in thy oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it [3] is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is a footstool under his feet; nor yet by [4] Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy [5] head, for thou canst not make in it one lock of hair black or white.[Matthew 5:37] But your word shall be either Yea or Nay, and what is in excess of this is of the evil one.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 210, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are. (HTML)
The Likeness of the Divine Word, Such as It Is, is to Be Sought, Not in Our Own Outer and Sensible Word, But in the Inner and Mental One. There is the Greatest Possible Unlikeness Between Our Word and Knowledge and the Divine Word and Knowledge. (HTML)
... sight of thinking is exceedingly like the sight of knowledge. For when it is uttered by sound, or by any bodily sign, it is not uttered according as it really is, but as it can be seen or heard by the body. When, therefore, that is in the word which is in the knowledge, then there is a true word, and truth, such as is looked for from man; such that what is in the knowledge is also in the word, and what is not in the knowledge is also not in the word. Here may be recognized, “Yea, yea; nay, nay.”[Matthew 5:37] And so this likeness of the image that is made, approaches as nearly as is possible to that likeness of the image that is born, by which God the Son is declared to be in all things like in substance to the Father. We must notice in this enigma also ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 213, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are. (HTML)
The Word of God is in All Things Equal to the Father, from Whom It is. (HTML)
... He knows all that the Father knows; but to Him to know, as to be, is from the Father, for to know and to be is there one. And therefore, as to be is not to the Father from the Son, so neither is to know. Accordingly, as though uttering Himself, the Father begat the Word equal to Himself in all things; for He would not have uttered Himself wholly and perfectly, if there were in His Word anything more or less than in Himself. And here that is recognized in the highest sense, “Yea, yea; nay, nay.”[Matthew 5:37] And therefore this Word is truly truth, since whatever is in that knowledge from which it is born is also in itself and whatever is not in that knowledge is not in the Word. And this Word can never have anything false, because it is unchangeable, as ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 245, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
A Lie is Not Allowable, Even to Save Another from Injury. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1119 (In-Text, Margin)
... high standard of goodness who never lie except to save a man from injury; but in the case of men who have reached this standard, it is not the deceit, but their good intention, that is justly praised, and sometimes even rewarded. It is quite enough that the deception should be pardoned, without its being made an object of laudation, especially among the heirs of the new covenant, to whom it is said: “Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”[Matthew 5:37] And it is on account of this evil, which never ceases to creep in while we retain this mortal vesture, that the co-heirs of Christ themselves say, “Forgive us our debts.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 460, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Lying. (HTML)
Section 6 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2309 (In-Text, Margin)
... thing bears witness to his own mind. But lest any should contend that not every lie is to be called false witness, what will he say to that which is written, “The mouth that lieth slayeth the soul:” and lest any should suppose that this may be understood with the exception of some liars, let him read in another place, “Thou wilt destroy all that speak leasing.” Whence with His own lips the Lord saith, “Let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”[Matthew 5:37] Hence the Apostle also in giving precept for the putting off of the old man, under which name all sins are understood, says straightway, “Wherefore putting away lying, speak ye truth.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 470, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Lying. (HTML)
Section 28 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2343 (In-Text, Margin)
... Apostle himself has used oaths in his Epistles. And so he shows how that is to be taken which is said, “I say unto you, Swear not at all:” that is, lest by swearing one come to a facility in swearing, from facility to a custom, and so from a custom there be a downfall into perjury. And therefore he is not found to have sworn except in writing, where there is more wary forethought, and no precipitate tongue withal. And this indeed came of evil, as it is said, “Whatever is more than these is of evil:”[Matthew 5:37] not however from evil of his own, but from the evil of infirmity which was in them, in whom he even in this way endeavored to work faith. For that he used an oath in speaking, while not writing, I know not that any Scripture has related concerning ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 496, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Against Lying. (HTML)
Section 33 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2448 (In-Text, Margin)
... servants, rendered unto them rewards of an earthly sort, albeit signifying somewhat of an heavenly. And Rahab, indeed, delivered out of Jericho, made transition into the people of God, where, being proficient, she might attain to eternal and immortal prizes which are not to be sought by any lie. Yet at that time when she did for the Israelite spies that good, and, for her condition of life, laudable work, she was not as yet such that it should be required of her, “In your mouth let Yea be yea, Nay nay.”[Matthew 5:37] But as for those midwives, albeit Hebrewesses, if they savored only after the flesh, what or how great is the good they got of their temporal reward in that they made them houses, unless by making proficiency they attained unto that house of which ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 240, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense. Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 667 (In-Text, Margin)
... fulfillment, but destruction. Again: "It has been said, Thou shall love thy friend, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for your persecutors." This too is destruction. Again: "It has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement; but I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and is himself an adulterer if he afterwards marries another woman."[Matthew 5:21-44] These precepts are evidently destroyed because they are the precepts of Moses; while the others are fulfilled because they are the precepts of the righteous men of antiquity. If you agree to this explanation, we may allow that Jesus said that he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 12, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm V (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 129 (In-Text, Margin)
... but in kindness: such was that of those midwives in Exodus, who gave a false report to Pharaoh, to the end that the infants of the children of Israel might not be slain. But even these are praised not for the fact, but for the disposition shown; since those who only lie in this way, will attain in time to a freedom from all lying. For in those that are perfect, not even these lies are found. For to these it is said, “Let there be in your mouth, yea, yea; nay, nay; whatsoever is more, is of evil.”[Matthew 5:37] Nor is it without reason written in another place, “The mouth that lieth slayeth the soul:” lest any should imagine that the perfect and spiritual man ought to lie for this temporal life, in the death of which no soul is slain, neither his own, nor ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 48, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 503 (In-Text, Margin)
5. “Who sweareth unto his neighbour, and deceiveth him not.” “Who hath not given his money upon usury, and hath not taken rewards against the innocent” (ver. 5). These are no great things: but he who is not able to do even this, much less able is he to speak the truth in his heart, and to practise no deceit in his tongue, but as the truth is in the heart, so to profess and have it in his mouth, “yea, yea; nay, nay;”[Matthew 5:37] and to do no evil to his neighbour, that is, to any man; and to entertain no slander against his neighbour: all which are the virtues of the perfect, in whose sight the malicious one hath been brought to nought. Yet he concludes even these lesser things thus, “Whoso doeth these things ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 185, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons. (HTML)
Homily I. Against Those Who Say that Demons Govern Human Affairs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 571 (In-Text, Margin)
... will be plain and manifest to us, that if we were chastened for each of our sins, we should long ago have perished. He who has called his brother fool, “is liable to the hell of fire” saith He. Is there then any one of us who has never sinned this sin? What then? ought he to be straightway carried off? Therefore we should have been all carried off and would have disappeared, long ago, indeed very long ago. Again he who swears, saith he, even if he fulfil his oath, doeth the works of the wicked one.[Matthew 5:37] Who is there then, who has not sworn? Yea rather who is there who has never sworn falsely? He who looketh on a woman, saith he, with unchaste eyes, is wholly an adulterer, and of this sin any one would find many guilty. When then these acknowledged ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 148, footnote 2 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To a lapsed Monk. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2104 (In-Text, Margin)
... sharper sting. What crafty wiliness of wizard has driven you into so deadly a trap? What many-meshed devil’s nets have entangled you and disabled all the powers of your virtue? What has become of the story of your labours? Or must we disbelieve them? How can we avoid giving credit to what has long been hid when we see what is plain? What shall we say of your having by tremendous oaths bound souls which fled for refuge to God, when what is more than yea and nay is carefully attributed to the devil?[Matthew 5:37] You have made yourself security for fatal perjury; and, by setting the ascetic character at nought, you have cast blame even upon the Apostles and the very Lord Himself. You have shamed the boast of purity. You have disgraced the promise of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 463, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)
Conference XVII. The Second Conference of Abbot Joseph. On Making Promises. (HTML)
Chapter X. Our question about our fear of the oath which we gave in the monastery in Syria. (HTML)
... concerns our desire, which we undertook to carry out for the sake of spiritual profit, we were hoping to be edified by continual intercourse with you. For if we were to return to our monastery it is certain that we should not only fail of so sublime a purpose, but that we should also suffer grievous loss from the mediocrity of the manner of life there. But that command of the gospel frightens us terribly: “Let your speech be yea, yea, nay, nay: but whatsoever is more than these, is from the evil one.”[Matthew 5:37] For we hold that we cannot compensate for transgressing so important a command by any righteousness, nor can that finally turn out well which has once been started with a bad beginning.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 466, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)
Conference XVII. The Second Conference of Abbot Joseph. On Making Promises. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII. An objection that only those men employed lies with impunity, who lived under the law. (HTML)
... praiseworthy? And all these things we see by the light of the gospel are utterly forbidden, so that not one of them can be done without great sin and guilt. And in the same way we hold that no lie can be employed by any one, I will not say rightly, but not even venially, however it may be covered with the colour of piety, as the Lord says: “Let your speech be yea, yea, nay, nay: but whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one;” and the Apostle also agrees with this: “And lie not one to another.”[Matthew 5:37]